Owners estimated that their cats brought home 42 prey items per year, while estimates show that cats kill one to three times as many prey than they bring home. This suggests that each cat was killing around 50 to 138 animals per year, according to estimates. - Cat Tracker projectThe study concluded that keeping cats indoors could blunt adverse effects on wildlife.
I have two indoor cats. They have a large screened sunporch which provides them with a modified outdoor experience in warmer weather. They occasionally escape and within seconds inevitably manage to kill a mole or a mouse.
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I rescue cats. I have 7 living with me right now, plus a few rabbits and some chickens. The cats catch birds and rats, it's true. But the birds are no fewer in number now than they were 5 years ago when I moved here, the rats seem to have multiplied, even though I bury, on average, 2 a week.
ReplyDeleteI live in New Zealand and the trees in my garden are often graced by visiting Kereru, also called wood pigeon.
Sometimes the kowhai tree has a squad of Tui fighting over who gets the necter from the flowers, at night the Ruru, a native owl blessed with soundless flight, can be heard calling for its mate.
The wax-eyes are more plentiful this year than ever before.
The cats do what they do, I guess most of what they catch are immigrant sparrows, but there are always hundreds on them eating the chook food so I am pretty sure my 7 cats make no difference whatsoever.
Sometimes reality is more truthful than some noisy academic.
Just by the by, I used to have mice in my house, my cats used to watch them, nothing else, just watch them. Then the rats came into the house, I guess me putting small open doorways in my walls to give the rabbits free access also allowed the rats an easy road. So they came in, and they killed and ate every mouse within 4 days.
ReplyDeleteI live in a very old house with an unfinished basement and we used to have a mouse problem in the colder months. Both my cats are accomplished hunters. Since I rescued them from the mean streets of Niagara on the Lake we no longer see rodents unless they are being batted around by Joyce or Carmen. I don't let them outside because of traffic and urban coyotes so they don't kill birds.
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